The Earthquake

On 25 April 2015 my friend and I were in Sikkim - small state in northwest India, bordered by Bhutan, Tibet and Nepal and forms part of the Himalayas. We travelling in a 4 wheel drive on a mountain pass. There was permanent machinery on the side of the road. It was left there to clear the road from the frequent landslides and avalanches that constantly blocked the road – and frequently responsible for numerous casualties. But we were calm and relaxed, enjoying the scenery. It had been a spontaneous decision to travel to Sikkim. We had tossed up whether to go to Nepal, Darjeling but when we learned that the valley of flowers ought to be in bloom we settled on Sikkim. And then everyone’s phones started to ring. The drivers phone went off first - his companions not long after that. I couldn’t understand what they were saying, but the tone in their voice was altered.

There had been a huge earthquake in Nepal. The calls were to confirm that we were all ok. At this point in time we remained oblivious to the extent of the devastation or the magnitude of the quake.

We of course were fine. We hadn’t even felt the quake. My friend’s family back in Delhi had noticed it more than us. There was some minor damage to a few buildings back in the township of Lachung, where we had departed from that morning, and we heard there had been a little damage in Gangtok where we were heading. Had we chosen to go to Nepal our experience would have bee very different.

We later found out that the earthquake killed close to 9000 people in Nepal alone and injured more than 21,000, with nearly 3.5 million people were left homeless.